readers early on. >> they decided to keep it short and start a blog. >> now, this really makes its comedy first responders and can get there very quickly and make fun of people. which is our basic mission in life. >> the hope is the jokes aren't just funny but informative. >> that's it for "the lead." i turn you over to wolf blitzer. he is in "the situation room." mr. blitzer. >> jake, thank you. happening now, lawmakers grilled the nation's spy chiefs about the tapping of the phone calls of americans and top u.s. allies. is the ing out of control? i will ask the house intelligence committee chair. congress gets the first public apology for the obama care website mess. with the president apologize for promising if you like your current health care plan you can keep it. millions of people now are finding out that's not necessarily true. senator lindsey graham gram joins thus hour as well. he is vowing to block all of the president's appointments until

survivors of the benghazi attack are made available to testify before congress. i'm wolf blitzer and you are in "the situation room." massive suburb veil answer at home and abroad. millions of people targeted for snooping including dozens of world leaders. there was explaining to do in front of their congressional overseers. they strongly denied some of the allegations, made some of their own. let's begin our coverage this hour with our chief national security correspondent jim sciutto who is watching what is going on. how did they explain, first of all, jim, the spying that goes on allied leaders? >> very strong bush back from the director of national intelligence stating as fact that european allies spy on the u.s. as well and they said to an extent they are their elected leaders may not be aware of and made the argument the u.s. has better oversight than europe has on this. interesting hearing chairman

mike rogers leaving no doubt whatsoever as he was questioning general alexander. listen tow this? >> have the allies of the united states ever during the course of that time engaged in anything you would qualify as an espionage act targeted at the united states of america? >> yes. >> and that would be consistent with most of our allies. let's pick a place. european union. >> yes, it would. >> so -- this is ongoing today. this didn't stop two years ago or last year or maybe last week? to the best of your knowledge. >> best of my knowledge. >> now, no one's hands are clean here. alexander also saying that the u.s. spies on its allies. he went further and said that leadership intentions, that is, the intentions of leaders even if they are allies, are reasonable, acceptable, goal of intelligence gathering and that would, therefore, seem to

indicate that even the phone calls of an jael america i will are fair game in the spy game what did they say about the president's knowledge of this kind of spying? >> whether he intended to or not james clapper seemed to give the president cover here because he said the president in general would know about the output of the intelligence gathering but might not know the source of it. when he is reading these intelligence reports. he did say the white house, national security council, would know in general the targets of this kind of intelligence gathering but it is possible the president would not know that a particular report he was reading said it was sourced from one of angela merkel. >> listening in on millions of phone conversations of europeans p. >> on this one there was no question from clapper and al alexand alexander. those reports completely pauls and said it was not the nsa or u.s. in any form that was gathering this data. it was, in fact, european countries doing so. european intelligence services. two, the data was not the content of phone calls or phone calls themselves.

this was part of a joint operation, the u.s. and nato allies that have nothing to do with the countries, spain and france, but had do with military operations abroad. >> we will speak to mike rogers. chairman of the house intelligence meeting with me later this hour. jim sciutto for that report. wlaets go to the crisis over obama care. and where it is heading. the official responsible for the obama care website today formally publicly apologized before congress for all of the problems that the users have been having and now into week five. does the president himself own apology for pledges he made repeatedly selling the affordable care act? >> putt like your doctor, you can keep your doctor under the reform proposals we put forward. if you like your private health insurance plan you can keep it if you like the plan you have, you can keep it. if you like the doctor you have, you can keep your doctor, too. we will keep this promise to the

american people and if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. if you like your health care plan, you willing able to keep your health care plan. period. if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. if you like your luc plan you will be able to keep your health care plan. if you have health insurance you like your doctor and you like your plan, you can keep your doctor. you can keep your plan. if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. >> let's bring in our chief correspondent white house correspondent jim acosta. what is the white house now saying, jim about all those promises made by the president in 2009 in selling obama care? >> with white house officials are saying that the president was talking about the vast majority of americans who get their health care through group plans and through medicare and medicaid and perhaps the va, not this 15 million of -- pool of

people who are receiving their health care insurance through the individual insurance market. that represents about 5% of the people who were in the insurance market right now. and when i asked jay carney, does the president regret making these comments, he said, no, the president was not misleading the public and that the people who are receiving these letters in the mail right now saying that their plans are being changed or discontinued, that those people are being affected or impacted by the insurance companies, not obama care. here is what jay carney had to say. >> did the president mislead the american people when he made that comment repeatedly? >> no. the president was clear about a basic fact. if had you insurance you liked on an individual market and you wanted to keep that insurance through 2010, 2013, in perpetuity if you wanted to, you could. you were grandfathered in. what no -- health care reform could envision or could responsibly stipulate is that

any plan that might come along in the next few years would be grandfathered in because that would undermine the basic premise of providing the minimum benefits for the american people. again, in all of these cases, what is absolutely true is that if you had a plan, before the affordable care act you like order the individual market, and your insurance company didn't take that away from you and offer you instead something else that you then purchased, but they provided thank you same plan this whole time, you can keep it. that's true. >> white house officials going on to say that people who may end up losing their insurance coverage on the individual market or see a change, they do have the ability to buy insurance coverage through the obama care website or through the obama care call center and that those policies while they may be more expensive are going to offer more coverage and at the same time, subsidies may be available to those consumers at the same time. that's the official word here from the white house. but to keep in mind, health and human services secretary

kathleen send slus going to be up on kwlil tomorrow. expect many of the questions to be aimed at her before she appears the house. the president will be in boston tomorrow talking about the fact that his health care law was modeled after what was passed in massachusetts by governor romney. romney will not be at that event. we talked to aides of the governor who said lee not be at that event. expect they president to make the connection between the two rollouts. >> these 15 million americans that got -- getting their health insurance in individual policies, it is interesting that there is a document released that we -- put in the practical register in june of 2010 which at that point, this is back in 2010, said anywhere between 40% to 67% of them would have their policies, policies, terminated that have to get some other care. anywhere from 5 million to 10 million americans, they are now going to have to find other health care, even if they have been satisfied with their earlier programs? is that what i'm hearing?

>> that's right. i talked to a representative of the insurance industry who said that that number may be higher. and in terms of americans who may have their plans modified or canceled, but what the white house says is that unlike the pre-obama care era, maybe those insurance consumers may not have any luck getting coverage, they now can buy insurance through obama care. the issue, though, is for many consumers is what they will be paying is going to be a lot higher in some cases. perhaps not all cases. some may see their premiums go down. but the white house says -- argues that those are going to get better coverage in the long run. >> jim acosta at the white house. thanks. we now know the president wasn't necessarily precise with his words back in 2009. to be precise he should have said something like this. he should have said, if you like your health insurance, you might be able to keep your health insurance. if you like your doctor, you might be able to keep your doctor. on the other hand, millions of

you will lose that specific health insurance policy because of the changes required by the affordable care act. but your new policy, new policy, may even be better than the old one because it will, in fact, give you greater protections and greater benefits. many of you might either wind up paying less each month because you might qualify for government subsidies. on the other hand, many of you, unfortunately, will wind up having to spend the more. some of you, a lot more. once again, many of you will be able to keep your doctor but, unfortunately, many of you won't be able to keep your doctor because he or she won't be in your new program. all of that certainly is not as catchy as the president's original sound bite but it is clearly more precise looking back on what was said then and what is going on right now. coming up, first on cnn, new evidence that the obama care website was headed for serious problems before its rollout on october 1. that's in our situation room special report.

obama care under fire. that's at the top of the hour. tweet us what you think. powerful lawmakers vowing to block the president's nominations until baengz attacked survivors are allowed to testify before congress. i will speak live this hour with senator lindsey graham.

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let's bring in lindsey graham of south carolina. key member of the armed services committee. local critic of the obama's administration of handling of benghazi and what happened there. senator, thanks very much for coming in. >> thank you. >> you are receiptening now, this is a big deal to hold up, correct me if i am wrong, every presidential, not personnel nomination, because they have not allowed certain people to testify about benghazi? is that right? >> yeah. the bottom line is 14 months after the attack, the congress has never had access to survivors of benghazi. you can't let the executive branch police itself. i find it unacceptable in a the united states congress is part of overseas sight. doesn't have access to those who

are at benghazi and who survived the attack on the consulate and the fbi interviews taken two days after the attack and never been provided to the congress and to me that's unacceptable. >> even? one like janet yellen who has been nominated to be the next chair of the federal reserve, you would hold up her nomination. the important work she needs to do in order to try to put pressure on the administration to make these people available? >> yeah. >> is that right? >> yes. why? why? because i think we can't live in a country when something bad happens, when there is a national security failure, the media has done -- a pretty good job of explaining to the fact -- to the american people the story told by the administration about what happened in benghazi does not have an ounce of truth in it. this was a pre-planned al qaeda inspired-led terrorist attack and protests gone bad. i find it appalling the congress can't talk to the people that survived the attack and be able

to interview them independent of the executive branch. >> the spokesman for the white house and the state department, jay carney, they say they made unprecedented cooperation with congress on -- benghazi. i will play a little clip from what jay carney said. >> i think it is unfortunate to hold up any no, ma'am me or any nomination process and when it comes to doing so for this reason, i think i have noted the considerable cooperation the administration has provided on these issues. >> have they provided considerable cooperation? >> no. we -- they -- people who are at benghazi, survived the take have never been interviewed, one, of the people that have been interviewed by the congress. the fbi interviews 48 hours after the attack and never been provided to the congress. here's why i think that's important. i don't believe there was ever a protest and i think the people on the ground told the fbi that they were attacked by a bunch of

terrorists and i don't know how in the world the story started. there was a protest inspired by video gone bad. when we investigated guantanamo bay and affairs in iraq, i was there with my colleagues pushing the system to get to the truth about the abuses at abu ghraib and gitmo. now the shoe is on the other foot and it is disappointing. they haven't provided the basics about benghazi. do you believe you understand what happened in benghazi? can you tell me how the story started that this was a protest gone bad when everybody on the ground in real-time reported a terrorist attack? >> have they not made these people available even on a confidential classified basis before the intelligence committees for example? >> it is mine understanding that the survivors, state department, personnel who survived the consulate attack, one, of that group has been interviewed by the house. and the cia agents at the amnex have not been interviewed by the

intelligence committee of the house and senate. i think the house and senate needs to do that. to have an independent look at what happened in benghazi and i want the fbi intervause, 48 hours after the attack, probably the best evidence we have of what actually happened in benghazi. >> when you asked for all of this what did they say to you? >> take a hike. at the end of the day, can you imagine the shoe on the other foot? can you imagine if this was the bush administration and they were refused to make available survivors of a national security debacle to the congress and would not provide fbi interviews about an al qaeda-inspired attack, what would be happening in this country? this is just an unacceptable way for the executive branch to behave. >> congress, daryl issa wants information from the administration and not getting it and issued subpoenas. are you ready to do that? should you be doing had a? >> i don't have subpoena power in the minority. all i can do is have what leverage i have. the only question president has ever answered was when we threatened to put -- on hold it is a cia chief.

i don't like doing this. it is not in my nature. 14 months into this, after the sixth amendment story, how can i go back to south carolina and talk to the families and tell them you have been told all there is about benghazi when we have never been able to talk to the people who lived through the attack itself? how can i explain the people in my home state that the story they told us about benghazi holds water after the "60 minutes" story? >> senator graham, thanks for coming in. i will speak with the house intelligence committee chairman mike rogers. first on cnn, we have new evidence the obama care website was headed for serious problems before its rollout. i started part-time, now i'm a manager.n.

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we are getting this in to

cnn. a top suspect in the deadly attack on the u.s. mission in benghazi, multiple sources telling cnn the raid was just hours away when the decision was made to abort. let's bring in our pentagon correspondent barbara starr. she has been working the story. what are you learning? >> we all know there has been huge political pressure on the white house to go after those benghazi suspects. the ones that attacked the u.s. compound last year. killing four americans. including ambassador chris stephens. cnn learned from several horses that u.s. commandos missed a crucial opportunity earlier this month. they were in libya, delta force commandos, to grant an al qaeda operative, abu al libby when they were going to go after this guy. ahmed abu khattalah. they were going to switch to going after khattalah in benghazi. but the operation never

happened. because once they got abu al libi in tripoli, there was so much turmoil in the libyan government that there was serious concern that any additional operation could destabilize and make the libyan government fall. so they -- aborted the idea of going after khattalah. president obama says he's still determined to go after the baends suspects but now a lot of questions did they go after the wrong guy? should they have prioritized khattalah first because of baends? officials said they went after whoever they could get first. >> barbara starr with that report. other news we are following. it has been one year since stormy hit new jersey and new york ravaging huge swaths of the jersey shore. some say it potentially could lead to the white house. brian todd is here with more of what is going on. what chris christie a year later, how is he doing? >> pretty well. as you know a year is an eternity in politics but chris

christie, his boost from that response to superstorm sandy still resonates. like the skilled politician he is, he's leveraging it. he is playing on his reputation as an all-business take no prisoners problem solver. on the an verse of stormy. chris christie's response to last year's disaster, when he was seemingly at every damaged boardwalk, every flooded basement, side-by-side with the democratic president, enhanced his political image immeasurably. >> this showed not only was he a fighter, was he tough and tell the truth, but he can work with somebody and can work with somebody across the aisle. >> that reassurance to victims government was working for them still resonates strongly after the government shutdown. >> there are a lot of people now looking at washington as dysfunctional. will is a lot of people looking at washington as not being focused on big solutions. and i think the proceed fail he has built in the time since sandy as governor is one focus

order big problems and focused on providing solutions. >> reporter: the kevin madden was a top adviser to mitt romney's campaign and admits his appearance with the president after sandy hurt romney. he believed christie had to do that. this is a skilled politician and master at playing even to his own weaknesses as he did on "saturday night live." >> new jerseyans are known for their patience. >> they are? >> yes, they are. how many times do i have to say it to you? >> christie is considered a likely presidential candidate in 2016. and noncommittal about serving all four years of his next term as governor. his inclination to slam his own party is seen as a potential liability. >> will is only one group to blame for the continued suffering of these innocent victims. the house majority and their speaker, john boehner. >> he has to be very careful. he has a tendency to be rude and sometimes take on his own folks.

and you cannot win a republican nomination by beating up on the republican party. that just won't work. >> stuart rothenberg says that and the link to president obama after superstorm sandy may have hit christie for a primary. other potential gop candidates, like ted cruz, rand paul, could convince republican primary voters that they cannot trust chris christie because he wasn't there when tea party republicans stood up to president obama just in these last few weeks. >> you are getting pushback from the christie camp that he was playing politics immediately after the superstorm sandy hit jersey. >> they are sense totive to that, even a year later. they are going to point out what christie said earlier this year. in the first days and hours after the storm, politics never crept into his thinking. he said -- look at it this way. most of his residents were without power and no schools were open. only 51 gas stations were operational and he had to do what he could to help the people of that state and that men

working with president obama in though first hours. christie says politics never crept into it but, of course, in the year since then they certainly have. he used that to his advantage politically and is good at that. >> he is an excellent politic n politician. here is a look at other top stories we are monday orring now in the situation room. just in, "washington post" reporting redskins owner daniel snyder has told the nfl commissioner he will not change his team's name. snider has been under a lot of pressure from groups that find the name offensive to native americans, including the united indian nation. this comes a day before a meeting with members of the tribe. a record breaking day on wall street times two. dow and s&p closed at all-time highs. nasdaq finished at its highest level in 13 years. despite a glitch that briefly halted options trade thing afternoon. nasdaq stocks were unaffected. blow for toyota and top selling american passengers car, camry. consumer reports dropped its

coveted recommendation because of the car's poor performance in one type of car crash. one industry expert says it is unlikely to have a major impact on sales. many suspect google is behind the structures being built in the san francisco bay and off portland, maine. there is speculation they will be marketing centers for google glass. company's cutting edge computer and you wear like eyeglasses. google is being tight-lipped about the project. surfing record for the tallest wave ever. the brazilian caught this monster off the coast of portugal. break the world record of 78 feet. guinness world record says it is waiting to receive his claim. coming up, my interview with the house intelligence committee chairman mike rogers. i will ask him if u.s. spying now out of control. plus, lawmakers prepare to grill the health and human services secretary over the obama care rollout debacle. i will speak with the committee

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lawmakers put u.s. spy chiefs in the hot seat today. i will talk about that with the house intelligence committee chairman mike rogers. documents showing the administration was warned about the obama care website a month before its disasterous debut. our situation room special report, obama care under fire coming up at the top of the hour. tweet us. use the hash tag. sit room. medicare part d plan did you know that if you enroll in a where walmart is a preferred pharmacy, you could save up to 80% on your co-pays over other pharmacies? this could lower your prescription co-pays to as low as a dollar

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responsibility. what's your policy? let's get back to our top story. u.s. spy chiefs went public today on the allegations of massive surveillance at home and abroad. joining us now, chairman of the house intelligence committee. republican congressman mike rogers of michigan. thanks very much for coming in. >> hey, would have.

it is great to be here. >> your counterpart in the senate, dianne feinstein the chair of the senate intelligence committee, yesterday put out a statement -- including this line that intrigued me. it is my understanding that president obama was not aware chancellor america i will's communications were being collected since 2002. that's a big problem. should he have been aware of the president of the united states that the u.s. was listening in on the german chancellor's conversations since 2002? >> well, let me tell you this, wolf. as a national security leader here, responsible for those duties, it is my responsibility to know that kind of thing. i felt that the intelligence committee fully me their legal obligation to brief us on those kinds of things. remember, the national intelligence priority framework is what sets out the kinds of information we want. as it came out in testimony today, hey, leaders' intentions is really important for us. so we don't have collisions and better relationships with our allies and fully understand our

adversaries. i do believe that the president -- let me rephrase that. i just don't buy the argument the white house didn't understand the full scope of what we were doing and i'm not saying we were doing anything in particular but it would be hard for me to believe that they didn't have an understanding of the full scope of the intelligence community and by the way, i believe after looking at this pretty seriously, that they were complete compliance with the law. >> let me press you on that. obviously you don't want to release classified information. were you informed that the u.s. was eavesdropping on chancellor america i will's phone conversations since 2002? >> i don't know want to talk about any specific operation of the united states would have. i will tell you this. that under the national intelligence framework, the priorities that we provide, one of the things that's important for the united states to do to protect itself, protect its economy, those things, is to understand what leaders around the world are thinking.

what their intentions are. so -- interest shouldn't be a par stretch to know as was indicated today by the heads of the intelligence community that allied intelligence services are spying on the united states. espionage is a french word, after all. we know that happened. we know that's why the president has to have a secure phone and secure blackberry. that's why members of congress when they travel, includingal tide states, get counterintelligence brief beings what to be careful about because we are likely to be targets of some sort offes people only age effort. that all happens. so some notion that the -- administration or white house for the last five years of that your presidency didn't understand the full scope of our efforts to try to put america in a better place just doesn't ring true to me. >> the other line that jumped out at me and issued a revised statement, dianne feinstein's aides, the white house informed me collection on the leaders of

our allies will not continue which i support. do you agree with her on that n. >> listen, you know, we learned pretty valuable lessons. in 1930, actually 1929, secretary of state at that time decided they were going to turn off our ability to collect information lou the 1930s we saw rise of imperialism, fascism and communism. russian intelligence services during that time killed millions of people. we had no understanding about that. i think history is a strong indicator for us. i would not stop our ability to understand what leaders of the whole entire world's intentions are. it doesn't mean we always do it. just because someone gives as you phone number and doesn't mean we listen to it. there are all kinds of factors in there. but think about all of the implications. "forbes" magazine had -- what about america i will as the number two most powerful leader in the world after the president obama? i'm just arguing, listen, it is

in the u.s. interests to find the best information that we can have so that we understand what our allies and our adversaries' intentions are. some of our allies have relationship was our adversaries. that's okay. they are still our allies. wouldn't it be good to understand fully those relationships? i think it would be. why would we turn anything off that provides our ability to collect information to keep america safe and to make sure we are not going to collide with our allies on certain things. i think that's important things to do for the intelligence community and think about it. we are in this about u.s. collection of foreign persons. that's what the intelligence services are for, in my sometime. >> one final question. if you can give me a quick answer, as far as you know has anyone in the nsa or executive branch of the u.s. government been reprimanded or fired that led to snowden stealing those documents and releasing them publicly? >> i can't say for certain. i believe there have been

individuals who have gone through their adjudication process for reprimand. again, still going lou the processes of what exactly happened. i do think that some individuals have been held accountable for their actions when it came to how it came about we came to this information. putting in place the proper protections so that this can't happen again. >> thanks so much for joining us. >> thanks, wolf. just ahead, ready and waiting for kathleen sebelius, the republican congressman, fred upton. he chairs the panel that will grill the health and human services secretary on the obama care rollout tomorrow morning. we will get a preview. we have new evidence the obama care website was headed for syria's problems before its rollout. that's coming up in our situation room special report. obama care under fire. tweet us.

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i will speak with fred upton. he chairs the panel that will hear from kathleen sebelius tomorrow morning about the obama care rollout. you are seeing him live. later i will ask a top house democrat, james clyburn, if he thinks the president misled the nation about the obama care program. if you have questions, tweet us. once again, use the hash tag, simple. ♪ nothing says, "you're my #1 copilot," like a milk-bone biscuit. ♪ say it with milk-bone. i started part-time, now i'm a manager.n. my employer matches my charitable giving. really. i get bonuses even working part-time. where i work, over 400 people are promoted every day.

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today we've got the first public apology from the obama administration for the messy obama care website rollout and a pledge that it will be fixed. that came from the medicare chief at a congressional hearing. it could be just a warm up to the hearing tomorrow when

kathleen sebelius testifies before the house energy and commerce committee. joining me now is the chairman of that committee. thanks very much for coming in. >> hey, it's still fred wolf. >> what's the most important thing you would like to learn from the secretary? >> we have so many questions. this will be about the dozen hearings we've had over the last couple years. we're going to be asking about the rollout, the ashurps that it was going to be ready. and they never did the end to end trial until a week before. it crashed again yesterday. i introduced legislation yesterday. i think we're going to try to move pretty quickly, that actually allows people to keep their health insurance if they like it. one of the promises that of course was a foundation of what the president, how he sold it.

>> but, as you know, a lot of those programs, they're being canceled because they don't meet the requirements of the new health care law, the affordable care act. they don't provide maternity coverage or mental health coverage or if of get long term disability they could cut your program. people like them, but they don't meet the requirements of the law. >> why don't we let the individual decide that. because we're hearing from individuals who got the cancellation notice, literally millions of people from around the country. they've been receiving the cancellation notices. they're trying without success to get onto the website. and once they do, some are finding that they're going to have a 400% increase, deductibles going up in the thousands of dollars. and they're like, i thought we could keep what we had if we liked it. why not allow them to have that choice over the next year knowing that this roll out has

been a disaster. >> when the secretary said she didn't realize that the site would be optimally working before the launch did you believe that? >> you know, we heard from the administration in july and august and september. they all said, it's ready to go. they almost wanted to have it in advance almost. they almost wanted to seem like they wanted to go prior to october 1. but because the testing what so poor, never the end to end testing. it's like contractors building a house, but the guy building the first story didn't know that the basement was on the next lot. there was no connectivity. we heard those complaints from an um in of different private sides. but at the end of the day, this was not ready. it's been a disaster in the making. and let's just, you know, when the president himself made the decision, i guess, to delay the employer mandate last summer, why is it not fair to do that on the same side with the individual mandate, which is

what we're going -- we may be seeing that legislation move in the house in the next couple weeks. we'll see. >> have you learned how much the obama care website, the rollout ended up costing the taxpayers? and how much the fix, the additional expenditures will come up? >> that will be a question for tomorrow. we know it's in the hundreds of millions of dollars what they've spent so far. we don't know if there are penalties that are going to be imposed because they didn't get this thing done right. we have no clue what the additional cost will be to try and get it right as the secretary said by the end of next month. we'll try to get an answer to that tomorrow. >> you're worried about cyber security where the obama care website is concerned. are you? >> i am. last week in questions that we had with the private

contractors, he said he was more worried than he was before he came to the hearing as it related to the security of the information that individuals plug into the system to try and sign up. he's got specific questions tomorrow. we'll see where it takes us. we're also concerned, you know, this is just the first step. it's like ordering that pizza, getting on the website to get an airline ticket, et cetera. that's the easy step. the hard step is when the airline has the plane at the gate. you're going to get that pepperoni and cheese pizza. we want to make sure, what kind of assurance is there for the providers, for the hospital, for the physician, when you go and need that service next year, that a, you're going to be enrolled. and b, that that provider's going to be paid for. p they can't get this first step right, and who knows if it's secure or not. and that's questions that we'll have tomorrow and probably in the days ahead.

how are they going to get the real important part right, which is taking care of your health care. >> 9:00, our special coverage will begin at 8:55 tomorrow morning. thanks very much for coming in. >> thanks always. coming up at the top of the hour. documents say that the obama administration was warned about the obama care website weeks before the roll out.

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absolute a-hole. let's get this straight. senator coburn called senator reid an a-hole while answering a question about civility. remember when candidate bush whispered this? president obama got caught on camera. >> he's a jack -- >> reporter: it's even safer to use a body part. but let's move on to the politicians using the f word. most colorful was rod blagojevich secretly taped while trying to sell a senate seat. >> i've got this thing and it's

[ bleep ] golden. i'm not giving it up. >> reporter: but when it gets caught on being an open mic, f-bombs away. three, two, one. >> [ bleep ]. >> reporter: that's vice president joe biden congratulating the president om obama care when it was new and shine eye. >> he has always had difficulty putting a sock in it. >> reporter: vice president cheney socked it to leahy telling him to you know what himself. then eliot spitzer said, look, i'm a bleeping steamroller and i'll roll over you and everybody else. even john kerry spoke to rolling stone about iraq, saying did i expect george bush to bleep it up as bad as he did? i don't think anybody did. but can you fault a president when he gets caught on his own tape swearing while watching

football? >> [ bleep ]. >> reporter: you know, you can almost swear these politicians are human the way they swear like the rest of us. jeanne moos, cnn. i really don't give a [ bleep ] whether they curse or not. new york. happening now, a situation room special report, obama care under fire. breaking news. cnn uncovers a confidential report warning the obama care website, was it ready just weeks before it was launched? plus serious new questions about the hard sell. did he mislead the american people by making this promise? >> if you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor, period. if you like your health care plan, you'll be able to keep your health care plan. period. and a reality check on obama care sticker shock. many people who weren't happy

about paying more may actually be getting more. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in the situation room. we begin this hour with breaking news. we have new information about a confidential report. the obama care website had problems, a warning to the administration shortly before the launch that apparently that warning was ignored. we have team coverage of the obama care under fire right now. what are you learning? >> well, in newly obtained documents, we're now getting a fuller picture of how much the government new or should have known about problems with the healthcare.gov website on the same day that a mea culpa was issued. they were warned that the obama care website wasn't ready to go live. cgi issued this confidential

report. it warned of a number of open risks and issues for the website. the report gave the highest priority to things in plain language like we don't have access to monitoring tools. not enough time and schedule to perform adequate testing. and hub services arity mittantly not available. cgi saying back in september they were putting ha team in place to alert whenever the hub goes down. up on capitol hill tuesday, the hid of cms kicked off testimony by saying she's sorry. >> we know that consumers are eager to purchase this coverage and to the millions of americans who attempted to use healthcare.gov i want to apologize to you that the website has not worked as well as it should. >> reporter: marilyn the the the

the the the -- when the state of massachusetts rolled out his its health care man years as. >> i will remind you that enrollment doesn't begin until march of 2014. the massachusetts system was very slow initially and it ramped up over time. >> reporter: the website problems were almost like window dressing where open warfare over health care has been waged for decades. a democratic party member leaped out of his chair. >> how many of you stood up to do that? none! zero. >> it's a false choice to say it's obama care or nothing. >> are you really serious? you had a legitimate alternative? we've gone through 44 votes.

>> reporter: this hearing was only a warmup, of course, for the main event on wednesday when kathleen sebelius appears before another committee. republicans in congress calling for her head. advance text of her remarks blame a subset of the 50 plus contractors. >> this was the cg "i-report" that was released, what, september 6. that weighs almost a full month before the october 1st rollout. what, any comment from the administration? >> we have asked cms for a response. we're told they're working on it. the report from cgi we referenced was based on work they did in august. they did not mention any of the problem in its report. its statement said we're confident in our ability to successfully deliver on the task and they said they remain committed to the uk is ses of the website as a key mechanism

by january 2014, note that the website went live on october 21st. there was a later report that indicated all of the previous problems had been fixed. >> by the way, as you were speaking i got a statement from the department of health and human services. this was a document we're talking about. this was a document at a point in time that identified issues, and we worked to address those issues and all issues identified. that's the exact statement. i'm not exactly sure precisely what it means, whether they fixed everything. they were satisfied by the end of september that the rollout would work but they were concerned. >> leaves questions. >> a lot of questions. and i'm sure those questions will be asked of the secretary tomorrow whether she testifies. we'll have live coverage starting tomorrow at 8:55.

the obama care fiasco is exploding beyond the website. did the president actually mislead americans in selling his signature health care law? let's bring in jim acosta. millions of americans are now being told they can't keep their current health care policies. what the white house response? >> reporter: white house officials have been fighting back on twitter, arguing back that the people being affected right now represent a tiny fraction, 5% of the insurance market as we stand right now. but still, those changes that are happening for millions of americans do call into question a key selling point the president made about the health care law, one the white house says was not misleading. it's a presidential sales pitch. >> if you like your plan, keep your plan. >> reporter: millions of americans aren't buying any more. >> if you like your plan, you can keep your plan. if you like your private health insurance plan, you can keep it. >> reporter: but as obama care

becomes reality, construction workers like ryan are finding they cannot keep their plan. >> i'm stomping mad. the guys i work with have gotten the same letters. and when we call blue cross blue shield they say they've been dealing with this all day long. >> reporter: they may see their plans canceled because they fall short of obama care modifications. >> did the president mislead american people when he made that comment repeatedly. >> jim, no. >> reporter: the white house press secretary jay carney tried to make the case it's not obama care taking away those individual plans it's the insurance companies. >> if you had a plan before the affordable care plan that you liked and your insurance company didn't take that away from you and offer you something else that you didn't purchase but

they provided you the same plan this whole time, you can keep it. and that's true. >> reporter: but with 300,000 blue cross policies cancelled in florida and 160,000 kaiser permanente plans in california, they say the president should have chosen his words more the precisely. steny hoyer says he should have chosen his words more carefully. republicans argue the president's claims are coming back to haunt him. >> if the president knew that these letters were coming and still indicated that you could keep your health care plan if you liked it, now that raises some serious questions about the sales job of obama care. >> reporter: now we're not only going to see the testimony of saturday lean sebelius up on capitol hill tomorrow. we're also going to see the president. he's traveling up to boston to make the case that the slow,

messy rollout that came with obama care essentially matches the experience that the people in massachusetts had with the rollout of romney care, the bill that was signed by massachusetts governor mitt romney. one thing we can say is we checked with aides to mitt romney. he will not be at the president's speech tomorrow. he's not going. still ahead, in our special report, he's young and healthy, and he has obama care sticker shock. is there a good reason for him to pay higher premiums? and i'll ask james clyburn if the president misled the american people. we've been bringing people together. today, we'd like people to come together on something that concerns all of us. obesity. and as the nation's leading beverage company, we can play an important role.

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live better. walmart. this is a situation room special report. obama care under fire. many insurers are raising their rates because of new requirements under the health care law. and that's giving some americans a bad case of sticker shock. they'll be paying more in 2014, but will they be getting more for their money. what are you learning? >> reporter: what we're learning is that many consumers will indeed be getting more comprehensive coverage under obama care, but some of them are saying they don't want it. dave payne, a 34 year old public relations professional in florida was initially excited

about obama care. he buys his own insurance, and he thought now, i'll get a better price. but instead, he got sticker shock. >> it was really dishartening. >> reporter: currently he pays $173 per month with a $5,000 deductible. under obama care, his new plan would cost $244 per month with a deductible of more than $6,000. but hold on a minute. when we look at payne's current more inexpensive coverage there are a lot of holes. it doesn't cover maternity care or routine things like hernias or ear infections. we asked payne about this. we found that your old policy had a lot of holes in it. but payne said that's fine with home. >> that's something i'm comfortable with with a dollar amount i'm comfortable with. >> reporter: but the government

says swiss cheese plans are risky since you can't predict what kind of illness you're going to get. insurance companies have to change policies like payne's. >> they have to come into compliance with the affordable care act. >> reporter: he doesn't understand why he should pay more when he hardly ever goes to the doctor. he prefers his old policy. no matter what illnesses the future might bring. now david payne makes too much money to get a subsidy under obama care. so we want to be clear, people who don't make as much money as he does they could get subsidies and they would pay lower premiu premiums. >> thank you. the botched obama care rollout has helped fuel concerns that the president has lost control of his own government. you raised questions on a new column you wrote. here are the larger questions that play into both the website

fiasco and the nsa issues. how can a president take control of his own government? how can he make sure he knows what he needs to know? and as the pro government cheerleader, doesn't he have a special responsibility to make sure it delivers, especially when his legacy hangs in the balance? the legacy being obama care. >> right. >> so has he failed on this issue? >> i think you'd have to say yes. look, this is a president who has extolled the virtues of big government to us. particularly in terms of selling this program of obama care, saying look, government can help you fix your health care problems. and now, what he's got is he's got people angry about the website. he's angry about the website. you've got people angry about nsa surveillance. he's now angry about nsa surveillance because he doesn't like the fact that angela merkle's phone was tapped. he can get angry, but in the end as he likes to say himself, the buck stops here.

i'm the president of the united states. and he needs to make it clear within the white house that it's important that the bad news get to him because if he gets the bad news then he can prevent the problems. but you know how that works in the white house, wolf, people protect the president. they don't like it to go up the chain of command to the president. and he becomes isolated. and there has to be some way as a president as a manager, you say you know what, that's not good for me, and it's not good for the country. >> his aides or other officials at hhs knew there were problems in early september. we got the document showing those concerns. but apparently nobody shared those concerns with the president. >> right. and why would the president be the last to know. we've heard in history oh, they're always the last to know. but in terms of this, 24 is an important issue to the president. if you'll recall, during the whole irs controversy, the president didn't know. there are ways that people who work for the president of course want to protect the president,

give him plausibility deniability on a whole variety of issues. but if kathleen sebelius knew, the secretary of hhs, if she knew, and if the people at the white house also knew, i would find it hard to believe that she wouldn't share it with some people at the white house in key positions. the president should be asking the question and may well be asking the question, why wasn't i told? because once he's told, maybe he can get things done. >> we'll see what she says tomorrow morning when she testifies before this committee. >> that's right. >> our special coverage will begin at 8:55 in the morning. just ahead, the third ranking, james clyburn, i'm going to ask him about the serious problems about the website. you see james clyburn right there. our special under fire continues through the

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the republican party has a new ad using humor to attack obama care. >> i'm in the private sector. >> and i'm obama care. >> what are you doing down here there. >> i'm just down for a little maintenance. young people could make-or-break the obama care. more on our special report obama care under fire right after this. huh...fifteen minutes could save you fifteen percent or more on car insurance. mmmhmmm...everybody knows that. well, did you know that old macdonald was a really bad speller? your word is...cow. cow. cow. c...o...w... ...e...i...e...i...o.

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let's get back to our breaking news. a cnn exclusive. we've obtained a document that shows that the baim administration was clearly warned in september that the

obama care website wasn't ready to roll out in october. we're now joined by the third ranking democrat in the house, james clyburn. thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me. >> is there any explanation if they were told, hhs, that there were so many problems that they went ahead and rolled it out and had this fiasco on october 1? >> i don't know, maybe they thought they could fix it. to be told on september 6 that there's something wrong for something that's going to happen on october 1, that's three full weeks to work on the problem. i guess maybe that's what they spent their time doing, and maybe it was not enough time to get it done. but the fact of the matter is there's still a way to sign up. i've been encouraging everything in south carolina that will listen to me, use the 1-800 number. go to the community health

service centers in the community. all of these people have got folks there. you can talk to somebody person to person, which is the way i would rather do it myself. so the website will get fixed. it's a problematic now. but it's always been that way. it took six months to fix it eight years ago when we did medicare part d. and we had the same kinds of headlines. and the grade in the headlines was an f. what happens four, five months from now by march 31, i think there's plenty of time to get this fixed. >> what about the repeated promise that if you like your health care plan you can keep your health care plan, if you like your doctor you can keep your doctor. not exactly true now because as we know millions of people are losing their health care plans.

now they might be able to get better ones, but they're still not able to keep what they had. what do you think about that? >> i think people like what they had until they try to use it. that's when you decide whether you really like what you've got. two of my three daughters i had to pay for out-of-pocket when they were born simply because of some fine print in the insurance policies. i ended up paying the doctor and the hospital out-of-pocket. that happens when you don't read the fine print. i've heard from people today who told me that they're getting cheaper policies and they're getting better coverage, and i believe the head of florida blue said as much on meet the press, i believe it was, on sunday, that people who get these letters will find in many instances that they will get a better policy for cheaper rates. and so nobody really knows what they've got until they try to use it. >> but, you know, a lot of people will get a different policy, and they may get better

protection, but if their premiums are going to go up, their deductibles are going to go up, they're not very happy. >> well, that may be true. and they don't know exactly what it's going to cost them. just because the premium goes up doesn't mean you don't qualify for a subsidy. and that's exactly what this is all about, making sure that it is affordable. it didn't say free. it's affordable health care. and if people find out that their policy, they're qualified for a policy, then it's time to determine whether or not they qualify for a subsidy. nobody's talking about the subsidies. and they're there for people based upon income. and so i would hope that we look at it holistically. and i'm not too sure that there won't be people who will find that they're much, much better off than they were without it. i know this. and nobody knows when they will slip and fall, have a broken ankle and get sick. just because you're healthy

today doesn't mean that you won't be visited by some ill health issue two days from now. >> and everybody needs health insurance. >> absolutely. >> thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you so much for having me. >> remember, you can always follow what's going on here in the situation room. tweet me, tweet the show. crossfire starts right now. tonight on crossfire, obama care hindsight. when the president said -- >> ail be able to keep your health care plan, period. >> did he know millions of plans would be canceled? should she have known the website wasn't? on the left, stephanie cutter. on the right, newt gingrich. in the crossfire, one who supports obama care and one who opposes